Bomb hoax creates panic at Hoshiarpur school

Panic gripped a school at Pandori Khajoor village on the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road on Monday after a phone call to the school said a bomb had been planted on the campus. It turned out to be a hoax after a search by the police.

Police conducting a search operation at a school near Hoshiarpur after a bomb threat that turned out to be hoax. (HT Photo)

Panic gripped a school at Pandori Khajoor village on the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road on Monday after a phone call to the school said a bomb had been planted on the campus. It turned out to be a hoax after a search by the police.

The staff member who received the call on the official mobile number of Sri Guru Harkishan Public School first alerted the district administration. And, within minutes, the police reached the spot with a bomb disposal squad, along with a firefighting team, but found no bomb. A man was later detained and was being questioned at the time of filing of this report.

The call came around 7.45am, principal Kiranpreet Kaur Dhami said, when not many students had yet arrived. The caller, saying that he was calling from Amritsar, warned about a bomb “somewhere on the school premises”. He said he had heard “two persons talking about it”. When the receptionist asked him if he meant the school’s Amritsar branch, the caller insisted that he indeed meant the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road branch.

The principal then informed the deputy commissioner. “We ensured that students did not enter the school,” she added. As the police arrived, heavy security was deployed around the school and a search operation was launched with the help of forensic experts and a dog squad.

Who’s got the number?

The caller’s number (82890-47331) was later traced to a man called Ramandeep Singh, a resident of Gobindpur Khun Khun village nearby, who denied having been using the SIM card concerned.

However, superintendent of police (detective) Kulwant Singh said they were “thoroughly questioning him”. “The SIM card had been issued on Ramandeep Singh’s identity proofs but with someone else’s photo. We will soon find the real culprit,” the SP said.